1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a machine tool and, more particularly, to a machine tool equipped with a tool magazine for carrying a lot of tools and providing a lot of space for exchanging tools.
2. Related Prior Art
A tool machine such as a vertical lathe, a milling machine and a machining center includes similar tools with different sizes or different tools of different sizes. The tool machine generally includes a spindle for spinning an active one of the tools, a tool magazine for storing the tools, and a tool exchanger for exchanging the active tool with another tool. There is an on-going trend to store a large number of tools in the tool magazine.
The tool magazine includes holders each for holding a related one of the tools. To store a large number of tools, the volume of the tool magazine is made large or the number of holders is made large.
Where the volume of the tool magazine is made large, the tool magazine is inevitably made bulky and heavy and inevitably becomes a burden for the tool machine so that it is difficult to precisely position the tool magazine on the tool machine. Therefore, it is difficult to ensure precise machining with the tool machine.
Where the number of the holders is made large, the distance between two adjacent ones of the tools held by the holders is made small. The exchange of the active tool with another tool would be interfered with by adjacent tools. Hence, the related holders or the spindle would be tilted or deformed, and the operation of the machine tool would be affected.
The present invention is therefore intended to obviate or at least alleviate the problems encountered in prior art.